‘That Day’, Rebecca & Rich’s first film, was inspired by the story of Kosei Mito, an in-utero survivor of the atomic attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the profound effect it had on the film’s producers. This documentary is the focal point of a large multimedia campaign to help abolish nuclear weapons.

“Let us not stand here marking the 80th or 100th anniversary lamenting a missed opportunity.

“We cannot and must not allow a new nuclear weapons system to be developed in this country.”

Commemoration events both mark the anniversary and give momentum to the world-wide campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Events internationally included 17 rallies in cities across the United States, organised by international nuclear disarmament campaign Global Zero.

Global Zero head Derek Johnson said: “We’re mobilising this weekend to make sure the Democratic and Republican nominees understand the only way to ensure these weapons are never used again is to eliminate all of them, everywhere.

“The next US president has to put that objective at the top of the foreign policy agenda.”

Edward Barber photographed anti-nuclear protests when they were at their most vocal and imaginative. MIKE QUILLE finds much to inspire in his work: here.

I’ve been coming to these demonstrations for years, so I don’t see any reason for stopping by the fact I can’t walk anymore. I follow all these demonstrations instead of political meetings, I’m a free-thinker.

Brenda McGraith

I’m here because it’s the 70th anniversary. We remembered the start of World War I last year and Victory Day in May, this is another very important anniversary that we need to remember.

Thais Court

I just think it’s really important to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s really important to come and show your opposition to nuclear weapons and to remember everyone who died and everything that has happened. Yes, it makes it more special that I come with my grandmother.

Monique Buchli

I feel very strongly about weapons in general. I feel they are not needed. If we work for peace and commit ourselves to create a world without war, without weapons, we would actually achieve much more. Nuclear weapons are just top of the list of the most awful weapons we ever invented and we should never use it. That’s why I am here, to tell the world, come on, stop having these horrible weapons.

Shigeko SASAMORI, a teenager in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb struck on August 6, 1945, was one of the 25 Hiroshima Maidens who were brought to New York City in 1955 for reconstructive surgery by Norman Cousins and Rev. Hiroshi Tanimoto. She has been a disarmament activist ever since.

Hibakusha Stories and Youth Arts New York will be sponsoring school visits in May of 2011.

Each school will be visited by one or more Hibakusha— survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in the summer of 1945. Visits will provide students with a rare opportunity to hear eyewitness testimonies of one of the most significant events in human history and will introduce the students to the concepts of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. The two-period visit will include a brief introduction to nuclear issues, first-hand accounts from the survivors themselves, small group discussions, and a final sharing from each group.

HUNDREDS of thousands of people all over the world united today to tell world leaders: “Don’t forget Hiroshima,” 70 years after the atomic bomb annihilated the Japanese city.

And today — exactly 70 years on from the Hiroshima bombing and almost to the day of the equally devastating Nagasaki bombing — medics at Japanese Red Cross Society hospitals are treating thousands of survivors — known as Hibakusha — for long-term health effects.

Nearly two-thirds of deaths at the institutions are due to cancer.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president Peter Maurer said: “What more compelling argument could there be for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, especially as most of the bombs in the arsenals of nuclear-armed states today are more powerful and destructive?”

In the year last year alone, the Japanese Red Cross Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors hospitals treated almost 11,000 of the nearly 200,000 living survivors.

“This commemoration is a reminder of the indiscriminate humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons,” he said.

“It is a reminder that these consequences travel across space and time and that, once unleashed, they can never be contained.”

Meanwhile events in London and Edinburgh today will also mark the countdown towards the potential renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons in March 2016. Heading the ceremony in the capital will be Labour leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn, a long-standing anti-nuclear advocate, who called on the government to lead the disarmament.

“The 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima should serve as a reminder to us all of the human cost of war,” Mr Corbyn told the Star.

“It should also remind us of the lack of progress in achieving nuclear disarmament, despite global agreement on the need to do so. “We must break the impasse in global negotiations and push forward to an agreement that sees these weapons banned, as we have with chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destruction.”

“Today of all days we should remember what the effects of a nuclear bomb are and realise the only way to stop another detonation — by accident or design — is by getting rid of all of them.”

Participants will be laying white flowers by the Hiroshima Commemorative Cherry Tree planted on the square in 1967.

In Scotland, members of Trident Ploughshares will be kicking off a fasting period of three days in an event launched by MSPs Fiona Hyslop and Bill Kidd.

The fast will last from today, when Hiroshima was hit by the first atomic bomb, until August 9, the date of the Nagasaki attack.

Abe is determined to overrule his country’s constitution and restore its historic rule over the region, writes KENNY COYLE. JAPANESE premier Shinzo Abe seems intent on marking the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII with empty gestures of regret, while at the same time stoking Japan’s future military ambitions: here.

As part of the War In Profile series of events, A-Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a poignant look at the effects of the first and, so far, only use of hostile nuclear weapons from World War II on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

The permanent members of the UN security council claim they want disarmament but at the same time develop ever more efficient ways of destroying the planet, writes JEREMY CORBYN

The UN Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference is held every five years. It is meant to monitor the effects of the spread of nuclear weapons around the world and ensure that the treaty is upheld.

Fundamentally the treaty has two big objectives: that all non-nuclear states who sign should not acquire or develop nuclear weapons, and that the existing nuclear weapon states (Britain, France, China, Russia and the US) should take steps to disarm, thus reaching the objective of a nuclear free world.

This review conference is drawing to a close and at the time of writing, the final declaration has not even been presented to the rather jaded delegates who’ve spent three weeks haggling over its details in endless committee meetings all over the UN in New York.

In reality it is the eternal debate of the permanent five and, despite all the public rhetoric, none have effectively moved towards nuclear disarmament — but in all cases have reduced the number of warheads they hold.

The development of nuclear weapons by India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel is obviously a threat and a danger, and an even greater danger would be the development of nuclear weapons by any other state. Interestingly, South Africa, the most prominent country to unilaterally give up nuclear weapons, is playing a very crucial role at the conference and its ambassador, Abdul Minti, commands huge respect amongst the many peace organisations in New York.

Before the conference began, there was a march of 7,500 people on the UN, with supporters from 20 countries who presented a letter to Taous Feroukhi who is the president of the Review Conference.

She accepted the seven million signature petition which called on all parties of the NPT to immediately develop a timetable to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons, and called upon India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan to join the process without delay.

One of the issues has been the dishonesty of the nuclear weapon states who claim to be reducing the number of warheads and in some cases de-targeting existing ones. This narrative is undermined by a very interesting article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists nuclear notebook by Andrew Lichterman, who noted that “new or improved nuclear weapons programmes underway worldwide include at least 27 ballistic missiles, 9 cruise missiles, 8 naval vessels, 5 bombers, 8 warheads, and 8 weapons factories.”

Last December was the third conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons hosted by the Austrian government in Vienna, which concluded with the Austrian pledge that “mindful of the unacceptable harm that victims of nuclear weapons explosions and nuclear testing have experienced, and recognising that the rights of these victims have not been adequately addressed,” calls for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Belated participation in the conference in Vienna by the US and Britain sadly was only used as a platform for them to claim that their security depended on their nuclear weapons. It is quite possible that South Africa will host another Humanitarian Effects of Nuclear Weapons conference and thus further isolate the nuclear ambitions of the nine nuclear states of the world.

The 2005 conference called for the establishment of a Weapons of Mass Destruction Zone in the Middle East and a conference to set this in motion which would have to include both Iran and Israel to have any effect.

This conference has never been held despite Finland being tasked with hosting it, and at the last review conference in 2005 there was a unanimous vote to hold the conference. Since then the progress of negotiations with Iran has provided the basis on which the conference could be held. The exasperation of delegates regarding this lack of progress is clearly boiling over and the Russian delegation is tabling new proposals on how to take the matter forward.

Quite simply, if there is not a process of nuclear disarmament in the region, then any one of the immensely wealthy countries could purchase or provide their own nuclear weapons.

The case of the Marshall Islands who were the victims of 67 nuclear tests between 1946 and ’58 has become a cause celebre, and the government of the Marshall Islands has now instituted a case in the International Court of Justice against the one member on the P5+1 — five permanent members of the UN security council, namely China, France, Russia, the Britain, and the US, plus Germany — which subscribes to the International Court of Justice for its non-fulfilment of the disarmament obligations of the NPT.

The case is proceeding in the court.

Albert Einstein said: “Bullets kill men, but atomic bombs kill cities. A tank is a defence against a bullet, but there is no defence against a weapon that can destroy civilisation …”.

Depressing as the outcome of the conference looks, the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament is more vital than ever.

Britain has a huge role to play in this, with the newly elected Conservative government promising to pledge £100bn on replacing the Trident system which runs completely counter to the high-minded rhetoric of the P5 who claim they really want disarmament while at the same time developing ever more efficient ways of giving themselves the ability to destroy the planet.

The NATO military alliance is preparing to implement a more aggressive nuclear weapons strategy in response to alleged “Russian aggression,” according to NATO sources cited by the Guardian Wednesday evening: here.